KEMP EDGES BUSH IN POLL

Rep. Jack Kemp, R-N.Y., narrowly edged Vice President George Bush in a 1988 presidential preference survey of delegates to the Conservative Political Action Conference, according to results released Saturday.

About 600 questionnaires were distributed by the Arthur Finkelstein polling company among the nearly 1,700 delegates, and 269 were returned.

"A lot of people feel it is a surprisingly strong showing for George Bush, and in very many ways it is a strong showing," said Robert Dolan, chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, one of the sponsors of the conference.

Although Bush bested Kemp by about a 2-1 margin in a poll last August of delegates to the Republican National Convention, some conservatives doubt the vice president's conservative credentials.

"He shows strongly because of the growing perception that he is becoming more conservative, or he is allowing his conservative instincts to guide his policy," Dolan said.

"I feel we have to welcome politicians to the conservative movement and not be concerned in the first instance with their motives, but concerned with whether or not they want to accept our vision, and if they do I'm not too concerned with the reasons why," Dolan said.